Tales at Sea
by ShellyStark
Summary: He would have taken the risk of drowning, had it actually been a risk. But he had felt the undeniable spark when their lips met on the street and now she appeared before him as a siren, winning over his darkened heart with her song. One shot. AU events after Manhattan/ jolly times upon the Jolly Roger.


**Tales at Sea**

Swan. Emma bloody Swan: turns out she was more magical than he had ever imagined. Much to his disappointment the crocodile would live, thanks to dear Emma and her new found…skill. How she had come about channeling such power was still beyond him. But that was the least of his worries, somehow he had managed to get knocked out and have a ship with unwanted passengers aboard. He wasn't expecting Baelfire to cave so quickly to his fading father, the man was still a monster, dying or not; yet that was all it took to turn the man back into the quivering boy Hook had taken in so many years ago. Only now he was wondering if he should regret it. He never would have become who he was today, never would have led a life of crime, never would have left Emma to abandonment. Then again their paths might not have ever crossed either and he most certainty would have regretted that.

She was the only reason he agreed to take them back in the first place.

* * *

He had awoken with her sitting by his side on a small couch, hook-less, an ice pack being held to the back of his head by her own hands. There was a flicker of concern in her eyes before they turned into storm clouds.

"No bonds, love? I thought you liked me all tied up."

Emma shook her head, frowning down at him and stalked over to the apartment window. "Fucking, pirate," she scowled under her breath.

"Can I have my hook back, darling?"

He got no reply, only a leer from the corner of her eye.

Hook groaned and got up to his feet, scanning the room around him. "Well, at least we're alone, that counts for something I suppose."

"They're on the way to your ship," she replied dully.

"Come again?" Hook's brow arched, his attention now fully on her and his snarky comments all but tossed to the wind. There was no way the crocodile was voyaging back to Storybrooke on _his ship_.

"What the hell did you think was going to happen, Hook? Hmm? Did you seriously think you were going to waltz in here, kill Gold and leave?" She turned to face him, brows knitted and eyes glossy, her teeth keeping hold of her lower lip.

"Actually, yes. What I wasn't counting on, sweetheart, was you and that boy of yours being here." Hook frowned; all he had wanted to do was finally put his revenge to rest. He wasn't aware she had come along with the crocodile on his trip, if he did he would have made sure to have waited until she and the lad were safely out of the way before taking action.

Emma scoffed, "Thanks for that by the way, any harder and I would have ended up on my face."

"Would you have moved otherwise?" he challenged.

She only stared back in answer.

"Thought not. What business did you have with him anyway? Why did you even come here with him?"

"We made a deal…I owed him a favor," Emma admitted quietly.

"You what?! Emma, that was not a wise thing to do, no. Do you have any idea what becomes of his deals, the outcomes are usually far more bad than good. His words are often riddled." Hook took a step towards her and she avoided his preening blue eyes. "There's something you're not telling me."

"Hook-"

"Why did you come with him, love?" he approached softly, blocking her in without touching her. His arms bracing the walls along both sides of the window.

"I told you," she whispered.

"But you see, my sweet Emma, open book remember, you've left out something. Something rather important, something that's making those pretty little eyes of yours flood."

She ducked under his arm and began to gather what was left of her things. Slipping on her coat with more force than necessary.

He went to her from behind and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Emma, why?"

Squeezing her eyes shut and taking a breath she spun around and met him face to face. "You, Hook! I left for you, to keep you safe! You happy now? Is it easier knowing that…" she blew out a breath and turned away from him. "Idiot!" she huffed, tugging on her golden curls. "We need to go."

* * *

Hook was left standing there as she began her decent down the stairs, his eyes still blinking in an odd state of confusion. "Me," he uttered to himself every so often, never thinking her words would have had this effect on him. He stormed after her, rushing down the street to keep up with her pace.

"Emma!" he called out, but she kept moving on strong. "Emma, slow down! SWAN!" he clenched his ribs and sprinted down the walk until he was close enough to grab onto her hand and spin her towards him. Hook wasted no time in tangling his hand in her hair and pulled her closer to him, his eyes wavering between her lips and her nervous eyes.

"Hook," she shuddered, "don't."

"Emma-"

His lips landed on hers in a fever and he felt the pulse radiate throughout their bodies, sparking his heart with vigor. Hook swore he heard the power lines above them surge and crackle. He felt her respond briefly, her fists curling around the lapels of his jacket before their kiss was abruptly ended. She yanked away from him, both of them staring at each other with widened eyes and hanging mouths.

"What was…did you feel that?" He licked his lips and eyes the wires above him just to be certain they hadn't fallen down around them.

"Emma, what-"

Her hand met his cheek, quickly cutting off his words.

"_Do not EVER _do that again," she sneered, inhaling a sharp breath, turning on her heel and marching away with vigor in her step.

.

* * *

She hadn't spoken to him since, hadn't even looked his way. Her boy, Henry, was real chatty on the other hand. He was quite taken with the fact that his mom had bested the great Captain Hook…a few times at that, and was intent that the pirate told him all about his adventures. It was the boy that had been the one to tell Hook that Emma had "fixed Mr. Gold", that her magic was strong enough that she could use it even outside of Storybrooke; apparently.

Hook liked the lad well enough; there was so much of Emma in him and for that he was glad (considering the other half of his genetics). Not to mention somewhere in there was just a touch of Milah, it was small, but it was there. Each time his smile reached into his eyes, when he laughed; a part of her lived within that boy.

Alas, there was still the matter of the Swan problem. There were no words to describe what had happened when his lips fused to hers. He knew she had felt it too, that spark that ignited his long burnt out heart. If he hadn't been holding onto her it might have sent him to the ground.

* * *

But now she was ignoring him; as she had been all night. Sitting along the railing; her body cushioned by the rigging as she curled her arms between the ropes to keep her hold, her eyes staring out at the moonlight shimmering across the sea. He wasn't dumb enough to try a repeat of his previous actions, bloody hell, he wasn't quite sure why he had done that in the first place; but he needed to talk to her. This stillness between them was too much to bear.

Moving down the steps from the helm he began his approach, staying in the shadows and keeping his steps quiet. If she noticed he was coming she'd probably only avoid him again. Hook kept moving, running his hand through his hair nervously at the thought of what he was going to say to her. _This is new; it's always been so easy before._ He gained a few more feet when he heard the melody carry on the wind and his breath all but stopped.

Upon one summer's morning  
I carefully did stray  
Down by the Walls of Wapping  
Where I met a sailor gay

Singing? Swan was singing? Sea shanties? On his ship? His lips quirked up into a crooked smile and he quietly moved closer.

Conversing with a young lass  
Who seemed to be in pain,  
Saying, William, when you go  
I fear you'll ne'er return again

Her voice was sweet, the type of voice that you would want you to carry you off into a dreamless sleep night after night. _That wouldn't be bad, that_. _A Swan song to lull me to bed each night. _ His heart fluttered at the thought; what little bit of it that still beat at all.

My heart is pierced by Cupid  
I disdain all glittering gold  
There is nothing can console me  
But my jolly sailor bold

Emma's voice fell quiet; she brushed her fingers at the corners of her eyes and leaned her arm on the railing before resting her head in the crook of her elbow, leaving her hair to billow over the side of the ship. She was glowing in the moonlight, despite her melancholy exterior. Everything about her drawing him in when he knew he should be pushing her away. What chance did a pirate have with a princess? None. No matter what he had felt between them; the gamble was too great a risk. His boots had other plans, for they kept moving along the gangplank when her voice quietly started up again.

His hair it hangs in ringlets  
His eyes as black as coal  
My happiness attend him  
Wherever he may go

Hook couldn't help but notice how her voice was faltering now, the small cracks in her pitch that were bringing a pain of its own upon him. He wanted to go to her, to hold her, to tell her that he never should have come to this Manhattan.

From Tower Hill to Blackwall  
I'll wander, weep and moan  
All for my jolly sailor  
Until he sails home

Alas, then they would have never been in the position they were in now. His Swan serenading the seas while he stood mesmerized in the midst of the shadows. He wouldn't have given up this moment for anything, in any realm, what so ever.

My heart is pierced by Cupid  
I disdain all glittering gold  
There is nothing can console me  
But my jolly sailor bold

He circled around a rum barrel, his hook snagging on some rigging causing a rattle in the masts.

"Shit," he swore under his breath, grabbing hold the rope in a weak attempt to silence his racket.

Emma's head came up quickly and her eyes nervously scanned the deck around her. Her chest was rising and falling in quick steady breaths and he could see her visually swallow from his view point.

"H-hello?"

He scrunched his face in a grimace and stepped out of his hiding spot with his hands held up in surrender. "'Tis only I, love." He offered her a weak smile to which she did not return.

"You!" Emma spat the word as if it were venom on her lips. "How long, Hook?"

"Well now, darling, if it's measurements you're after I'd be more than happy to show you," he smirked with a curved brow, mentally slapping himself as soon as he heard the phrase pass through his mouth.

"How _long_ were you standing there!?"

"Love, I had no ill intentions I assure you."

"So what exactly were your intentions, Hook? What were you doing, simply enjoying the show? She stood from the crate and stomped across the gangplank until she was only a foot away from him. He looked down on her and sighed. "What? No smart assed remark now? Cat got your tongue?"

A sad smile passed over his face, "No, lass, the only thing rendering me speechless at the moment is you." He ruffled a hand in his hair. "I see now I should have kept to myself for the evening." He gave her a small bow. "My apologies, Emma." He walked away from her and went to go stand at the bow of the ship, cursing himself for allowing himself to feel something for that bloody woman. She'd never let him in, her wounds ran too deep.

He began to hum the shanty that he had stumbled upon her singing. It wasn't unknown to him, it was one he rather liked really, surprised that she had known of it though. Surprised and smitten all at once.

"One of the families I stayed with, the husband was a fisherman," her quiet voice came from behind him. Her eyes were downcast and glancing off to the side. "Of the many homes I found myself in, that one wasn't so bad. He used to take me out, on the boat, after the season was over…It was nice."

She stepped up so she was beside him and rested her arms along the railing and stared out into the open sea. Hook made motion to interrupt her, he only watched with an intent gaze. _Who would have thought, his Swan closer to being a pirate than he could have ever imagined._

"We got lost in a storm once; we must have been at sea for at least a week. I-I couldn't sleep, so he would sit with me in that tiny cabin and sing to me." Emma pushed out a breathy chuckle. "It worked, and that stupid song never left my head."

She walked over to the jacket that lied on the crate she occupied earlier and pulled his hook out from the inside pocket.

Hook waited for her to offer it back to him, but it never came, instead she gently lifted his arm and slid the hook into the slot and gave it a twist to lock it in. She gave him an apologetic smile before going back to lean on the railing.

"How old were you?"

"Eight, nine, I don't remember," she said with a sigh shaking her head. "It doesn't matter." She straightened herself up and went to leave when he hooked her around the arm, spinning her back towards him, her body bumping up against his. She put her hands up on his chest to catch herself and when she didn't immediately remove them he let his hooked arm slide around her back.

"It's said that there was once an island of sirens and that they lured every man who dared sail past in with their song to be killed. Seduced. Bewitched by love and then struck down all in the name of good fun. Until one man and his crew bested them. They filled their ears with wax to drown out the songs, their Captain lashing himself to the mast so he couldn't be taken so easily. The sirens became so distressed at the sight of not just one man, but many, resisting their charms that they threw themselves into the sea and drowned. After that the songs became akin to mermaids."

"They became mermaids?" she asked with a carefully arched brow.

"Aye, that's what is said; but a pirate hears a lot of tales, love. Most of them are just that, tales to pass the time a sailor spends worrying while long away at sea."

Emma looked down shyly and played with a buckle on his vest. "What about the mermaids kiss, just another one of those tales then?"

Hook's lip curled into a smile. "Ahh, nice one, that, the thought that one of those blasted creatures would actually save someone from drowning with a kiss." He ducked his head to meet her eyes, "The lad share that with you as well?"

"We were stranded for a week, Hook; his whole life was the sea. It wasn't as if he knew any conventional bedtime stories." She laughed.

"Mmm, all stories come from somewhere, darling." He turned his wrist so that the curve of his hook gently smoothed over her back.

Emma crinkled her brow, taking in a breath of realization before she looked up at him with a grin. "It is true isn't it? Both of them?"

Hook said nothing, running his hand down her arm, expecting to see the sparks he was feeling as he watched his fingers come in contact with her skin.

"I know there are mermaids in Neverland, Hook," she jested, "Was it you who stuck wax in his ears?"

Hook chuckled at that, "No, darling, indeed it wasn't. And most mermaids will just as soon drown you with their kiss rather than save you. Ruthless creatures; in fact, unless you can find some way to win one over her kiss is most certain to drown you…and then she'll eat you."

"But you were there for…centuries and you survived."

"Aye, seems a man who is already broken feels no call towards the song of a siren." Hook brushed the hair from her eyes and let the back of his fingers caress her cheek, afraid that she was going to squirm out of his hold at any minute, despite being there this long.

"Or so I thought, until I found one sitting in the moonlight on my ship," his voice was quiet and his breathing came in deep shallow breaths. His thumb came up and traced her lower lip, his eyes fixated on her wide ones.

"So beautiful, vulnerable, and just as lost as I am." His hand rested on the base of her neck now and they stood in a still silence, blinking at one another. "So I ask her this:" touching their foreheads together, allowing his lips to hover over hers, skimming but not connecting, "Will your kiss drown me, or save me, Emma Swan?"

It was Emma who pushed the last millimeter of space between them together, her hands moving from his chest and tangling up into his dark hair while his hand did the same. The brief spark they had felt from their first brief kiss was nothing in comparison, she could literally feel the heat radiating from her body and on outward. She traced the seam of his lips and he let her in to deepen their kiss. The faint taste of rum and sea invaded her mouth and she moaned in return.

He turned her around, hoisting her up on the railing and her legs went around his waist, pulling him into her with a groan.

"Gods, Emma," he muttered against her lips, "Don't tell me you didn't feel that."

She let her head fall on his shoulder, pressing a kiss to the inside of his neck, leaving a trail of kisses up to his ear. "I sure as hell _felt something_," she giggled.

She felt his laugh rumble against her, "That sounded like it should be my line, love."

He captured her lips once more, letting his forehead sit against hers when he pulled away.

"What now," he asked quietly, "you don't hear many tales of pirates and princesses."

Emma played with the hair at the nape of his neck, keeping her legs locked around his to keep her balance. His blue eyes had never been as blue as they were in this moment, alight with happiness. She'd put money on it that hers were shining just a bright.

"Now, Killian, we sleep. The rest will come to us."

She let out a small shriek followed by a laugh when he hoisted her up into his arms and spun her around, his mouth quickly descending onto hers. He carried her all the way back until they reached the door of his cabin, kissing her languidly.

Hook set her down, pressing a kiss to her hair and taking her hand in his. He was staring down at her with a soft crooked smile.

"What?" Emma laughed.

"Nothing, lass, just never thought I'd have the joy of hearing my name come from you, is all." He brought her hand up placed a kiss on her knuckles. "Until tomorrow, my dear, Emma."

Emma smirked, raising an eyebrow and grabbing hold of his hook with one hand her other finding the knob on his cabin door.

"C'mon, Captain," she coyly bit her bottom lip and went up to whisper in his ear. "If you're lucky, you'll get to hear me do more than say it." She pulled back and gave him a wink, using his hook to pop the first button off of her shirt; sending it skittering along the deck. She released him and turned slowly, slinking into the room before them.

Hook visually swallowed, blinking in succession and his mouth hanging open at the marvel of a women that was now taking up much welcomed space in his quarters.

"You better hurry, Killian, before I change my mind," she teased and he caught a glimpse of a shirt flitting across the doorway.

"Bloody hell, Swan," he groaned, stumbling in after her.

Killian could watch her sleep for days, even now, after so many years had passed. Henry had gone off and had a family of his own now with that lass called Grace. He brushed the hair from her face and she stirred against his chest. He smiled and laid a kiss to her temple, his fingers skimming down the center of her back.

Emma sat up and smiled, her hand rubbing the stubble of his cheek before leaning in and pressing her lips to his. When she began to leave the bed he slinked his arm around her waist and pulled her back to him, nuzzling her neck.

"Stay," he whispered.

"I can't, somebody has to make breakfast before that rebellious daughter of yours wakes up," she chuckled half-jokingly. She turned so she was facing him, "You know, she almost got suspended for starting a fight with a boy?"

"Sounds familiar," Killian smirked, nudging her with his nose.

"Yeah, she's you!" Emma scoffed, giving his shoulder a smack.

"Oh, I don't know about all that. I seem to recall a certain young lass who used to enjoy picking fights with me…sometimes she still does." He rolled on top of her, teasing her lips with light nips before she sighed and pulled him in for a proper kiss. He peppered kisses down her jaw line and was working his hand beneath her shirt when she stopped him.

"Breakfast, Killian."

"Mmm, yes, I'm about to enjoy mine," he continued on, sucking gently on her pulse point.

Neither of them heard the quick knock on their door, it was the shrill voice of the teenage girl in the doorway that brought them to a halt.

"Oh. My. God. That's so gross! You're so old, not to mention my parents! GOD! All I wanted was some damn eggs!" The blonde spun out the door with a slam.

"Language, Cass!" Emma hollered after her.

Killian's head fell on her shoulder in a chuckle, kissing her forehead before he rolled off to allow her to get dressed.

"Yeah, that little miss attitude is allll you!" Emma snapped.

Killian shrugged, "Perhaps, but with her mother's looks she'll get away with murder."

His arm slid around her as she stood before the closet mirror, pulling her back into his chest. Emma reached back and let a hand tangle in his hair and his eyes slid closed while he pressed his cheek to her.

"I love you," he murmured into her hair line, replacing his cheek briefly with his lips.

"And I love you," she smiled, tilting her head up to catch the corner of his mouth. "Hurry down and I'll save you some grub." She ran hand through his hand, giving it a slight ruffle before she left him standing in front of the mirror alone.

His black hair now speckled with bits of grey at his temples and in the scruff of his cheeks. He never wore the hook anymore, that was a thing of the past…well, unless Emma requested it. She still got a thrill of the way he could tatter up a shirt in an instant. The scars of the pirate were still there but they had been kissed by the lips of his savior and held no pain anymore. He was no more a pirate than she was a princess, titles be damned. They were simply two people who had found love within each other and held on for dear life. That's what he saw looking back at him now, a man with love in his life, a man who had reasons to live.

Killian Jones had received the deadly kiss from his siren; and the risk of drowning was worth every second.

.

* * *

.

**A/N:I know Hook also took his crew to NL for the sake of fanfic, lets pretend he didn't, okay? I also know he wouldn't just abandon his want to come to Manhattan...but I liked it, so it stayed. Now that's has been said: make me happy and fill up that box below :D**

**Shelly**


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